The Garland of Jewels That Connects Us

On February 19, 2015, during the Mandarava retreat at Dzamling Gar, Chögyal Namkhai Norbu set in motion a highly original and effective effort to raise funds for the future Gönpa of Dzamling Gar. From that date forward, under the name Evolution Creations, he has been personally making hundreds of jewel ornaments offered in exchange for donations for the project. Of course anyone can also offer any amount independently. All of the donations go toward the construction of the new Gönpa. The first Evolution Creations were necklaces, but Rinpoche soon added other types of protection ornaments to ensure that there is something for everyone. To date, he has created more than 800 necklaces, 700 bracelets, 600 car protections, and 600 key protections.

The Jewels are offered in two different ways: During teaching retreats a new selection is offered each day until 9:00 p.m. (retreat location time) in exchange for donations pledged both at the retreat location and online. Once a month, in between retreats, a single selection is offered online only for an entire week, starting on Monday and ending on Sunday at 9:00 p.m. (Dzamling Gar time). People from around the world can participate. Both retreat selections and online-only selections are announced to past participants and to Norbunet subscribers. For more information, contact evolutioncreationsbychnn@gmail.com.

This article, in Rinpoche’s own words from recent teaching retreats, explains the special benefits of these unusual and priceless creations.

As you know, we need to build a Gönpa so we do not have to remain in a temporary structure like this tent for many years. Two years have already passed like this. So we are trying to build a Gönpa. It is very expensive in a real sense. We need to make money.

Sometimes I am asking all of you to participate and make an offering. And when I ask people that, everybody is participating. It is really wonderful. Even if you have no way to make anything but a small offering, no matter how much it is, it is very, very important to participate in any way.

Any offering, big or small, is a very good way for you to make a connection with the Gönpa, because as you know when we have the Gönpa every day people will be doing practice here and dedicating. Particularly in retreats we will be singing the Song of Vajra, the Six Liberations. Even when we are no longer on this earth, our generations will continue and our families and descendents will receive benefits. Knowing that, try to do your best.

When you make an offering, it is very important that you write your first name and your last name, because the names of everyone who makes an offering will remain in the Gönpa for centuries and centuries.

I am also doing my best, I know very well it is something very important. And day and night, whenever there is time, I am making necklaces and also jewel ornaments for protecting cars and so on. I am doing this work because it is my contribution for the Gönpa. Your contribution is when you participate by making an offering.

Now I would like to introduce to you a little background about the things I am making, because maybe you do not have a very precise idea. I am not only making necklaces. I am making necklaces that also serve as a protection. I always empower them with mantras, and not only mantras: what is most important is being in the state of contemplation. This is supreme. Then there are also mantra visualizations connected with Guru Tragphur, Green Tara, and so on. This is how I am making the necklaces.

I am not only adding precious stones, but always precious stones with the quantity of five colors. The five colors are related with the five elements that everybody has. You see, this is something very important. For example, when we make a namkha, it is for harmonizing our elements. I also prepare protection cords for children or people who are not practitioners. Practitioners can do practice, children generally do not, so I prepare protection cords for them. This also harmonizes the elements, because we have many things that are not harmonized in our condition. This is a problem we can all have and it is very important for us to coordinate our energy, whether with a protection cord or with some kind of ornament. If it is empowered and coordinated with the elements it has this kind of benefit.

So most of the necklaces I made have five colors because then all five elements are complete and you can see the relationship of the elements and how they are harmonized. If you know a little about elemental astrology you can understand.

When not all five colors are present, it means I mainly did protections with Wözer Chenma, for example, if there is a lot of yellow, or if there is a lot of green, with Green Tara. If there are many greens at the beginning that also means Green Tara. Then there is also the combination of OM AH HUM, the three vajras, the essence of all: white, red, and blue.

So this is my way of making protection necklaces, and then I am also preparing other things. The same applies: even if not all five colors are present, instead of putting blue water and red fire, which is not so nice, I choose a combination of elements that increases and harmonizes, like green air element and red fire element.

I am also making things like protections for cars. First of all, they contain many knots of protection, and then there are also five precious stones in various combinations. Even when not all five elements are present, the combination is harmonized. The protection cords I say are for cars can be good for an elegant car. But this is just my idea; they are not only for cars. You can also put them in your house. For example, they are a protection for not receiving negativities.

I also make some that are a little smaller; at first I thought they are for people who have a motorcycle, because they have only a key, so they could put this on the key since it is small. But you can also use this one for a car, not just for a motorcycle, or anywhere else. So this is another form of protection.

In addition, I make bracelets that you can put on your wrist. These are also combined with harmonized elements.

It is important that you know a little about how it works and how it benefits because I never told anybody; I have just been making them. But sometimes I thought it’s better to let you know more about them.

When people buy these jewels, they also give their names, and we will always keep these names as well. This means the merit continues for generations and generations.

By making a little offering for the Gönpa, everyone becomes connected, then it is very positive. When we feel we are really part of the Dzogchen Community, like a family, then we all have this responsibility. If you are not participating it means you do not feel like you are part of this family. So your participation is also very important symbol. For that reason I would like thank all of you for your participation.